Tag: photography tips

So now you’ve come home with a hard drive full of travel photos. You’ve followed my article 7 Travel Photography Workflow Tips to use on the road. You can’t wait to have a good look at them and show them around. But where do you start? Well, read below to find 7 ways to organise your travel photos.

1 Back up before you get home.

If you have been following my articles or even if you haven’t, you should have backed up everything you took whilst you were away.

Each image should have been renamed and in some sort of order and/or folder and on a hard drive and on a computer. If you haven’t done that then it’s not too late you can do it right now. This is something you should do before you get home and usually as you go. What no back up! You might want to go to How to Back up your Travel Photos.

There are lots of ways to achieve this of course. But the simplest is to use software that will make it easy for you. Adobe Lightroom is one option and I’ll come back to that.

2 Rename

You may think what’s the point. But trust me renaming your photos to something more meaningful will save you a lot of heartache. PB081477.ORF or IMG_6649.CR2 does not even start to give a you clue what it is unless you have dumped it into a suitable named folder.

The first thing to think about is what you will rename it to. There are various options. Some of these can be confusing, others are simple and easy to remember. You can get as simple or as complex as you like. Here are some examples: Date_Number_Place or Shoot Name. Number_Date_Place or Shoot Name. Place or Shoot Name_Date_Number. The date can 2017_08_12 or 12_08_2017. As all photos have a date in the metadata then you only really need the month and year so 08_2017. However, the object should be to keep the length to a minimum so 0817 or 1708 is fine. The number is obviously the image count and you should look to start at 001 or 0001.

3 Optimise

I use Place or Shoot Name_Date_Number. That is name of the place, area or country. Doesn’t sound consistent? You’re right it’s not. But the selection of the hierarchy is dependent on the number of photos. Let’s say I’m in New York and I take 30 photos of the Brooklyn Bridge, then I will probably select “Brooklyn_Bridge”. If on the other hand I take 30 photos in New York of 15-20 different subjects, then I will use “New_York”. To take that up one level. Let’s say I travel around England for a flying visit and took 30 photos in several different areas. In this case I might even use “England”. The latter is less likely for me but you get the point.

I follow that up with the month and year so 0818 – August 2018 and then the number starting at 001. Putting it together you get England_0818_001. So that would be the first photo I took in England in August 2018. What you do have to be careful of is, that if you return to a place in the same month, you need to make sure that you don’t start at 001 again. Start at one number after wherever the last batch finished, e.g. England_0818_215.

4 Rename Historically

You’ve probably looked at your existing travel photos and have promised yourself that you will get them into some sort of organisation. Part of that job is to rename them in some sort of order. Well fear not, there are some useful ways of renaming multiple files in bulk. If you have Adobe Lightroom you can do that quite easily. Alternatively, if you are a PC user Windows 10 can help you with that. Likewise, Mac users with version Yosemite or better can also get the MAC OS to do it. The links are to a couple of tutorials

Failing all these there is specific software that is either free or inexpensive to buy. As a PC user I have used Bulk Rename Utility which I think is still free. For Mac users A Better Finder Rename comes highly recommended.

 

5 Use folder hierarchy

The other challenge to organising your travel photos, is the dreaded folder hierarchy. Again, opinion is mixed on this. As with the actual file names you can create folders that have the date or name and various combinations. I usually create a folder when I’m loading through Adobe Lightroom with the Place or shoot name. This folder is a sub folder of the year. So my hierarchy looks something like ImagesRaw ImagesRaw 2017Trip_2017Zambia_17. But you can do it in date order e.g. 2017108_ZambiaRaw Images.

It’s really about how you look for your images. Whether you look for them in batches of dates or subjects. Both Windows and Macs search options will cover either way. But they are not foolproof and nowhere as good as Adobe’s Lightroom.

Whichever way you decide to follow you need to stick with it. Changing it later can be very time-consuming and tedious.

6 Keyword

A really excellent way of finding images is to enter keywords (or tags) when loading them onto their final resting place. The only thing is that it is time consuming. Once again, the easiest way is via specialist software, in particular Adobe Lightroom. You can assign keywords (or tags) via Windows 10 or the Apple OS but in comparison it’s pretty painful. Go to Native Organising, Part 2: Sorting Photos with Custom Tags in MacOS or Native Organising, Part 3: Tagging Photos with Keywords in Windows if you must.

So what sort of keywords do you need? Well again that depends on how you are going to search. If you have some wedding photos and you want to see all the ones with Uncle Joe, then you would use “joe” or “uncle joe”. If you wanted to see all the images you took of the Eiffel Tower, then you would use “eiffel” or “eiffel Tower”. My system is usually country, locality, town, subject, type, anything else. If I took a picture of the Brooklyn bridge, then the keywords I might use would be USA, New York, Brooklyn, Brooklyn Bridge, Bridge, River, East River, Water. If there were people in it, I could add people, street, tourists. Any word that you may at some future date want to use for searching can be used.

7 Use other tags

If the camera you were using has face recognition and/or Geo-Tags, then that’s another form of creating searchability. You will still need to refine it depending on how you want to search. The algorithms for face recognition are good but not infallible.

7 Ways to Organise Your Travel Photos – Summary

It’s important for future searches to make sure that you organise your travel photos.

First things first backup, then look at how you will rename your photos. (Don’t use the camera generated file names – you’ll never find anything!)

Optimise the names so you understand them. Once you have a system of naming and optimising, you may want to consider renaming some of your existing photos to maintain consistency.

Of course, naming them is one thing but you also need to be careful of how you store them. Having a logical folder hierarchy is the best way.

There are other ways of searching for photos using keywords and tags, such as Geo-Tags.

How does that make you feel about travel photography? Do you want some help with your travel photos? Why don’t you pop your email in box below and not only will get content that’s not always posted on this site, but you will get a free guide to get you started

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In the last couple of posts the travel photographer destination part I and part II, we discussed what to do when you reach your destination. 

But what about your travel photography workflow whilst you are on the road?

Follow me as I give you some tips and tricks on how to handle the photos you are taking whilst you are on the road.

A Recap

You’ve learnt in the last few posts about being prepared and ready to take travel photos. Making sure your camera equipment is always set up correctly, clean, has the correct lens and plenty of memory and battery power.

So now you are out there taking images, how should you go about it.

1. Keeping tabs on what you are taking

Newer cameras have GPS tags and dates. 

So you could be thinking that taking down details of the photos you take is a no longer necessary

But, if you actually want to relive the experience of when you took the image, then note taking is essential.

It doesn’t have to be ‘war and peace’. It can be as simple as “Sydney Harbour Bridge taken from the Rocks area”. You could go into more detail like: “Sydney Harbour Bridge taken from the Overseas Passenger Terminal Quay on Circular Quay West. Time 4Pm 27/05. Weather was overcast and the sun was a few minutes from setting.”

Taking notes can help:

• As a backup for the metadata that’s captured in the photos itself. Locations and even times are not always accurate
• To add a caption to the photos if you are going to share and/or display it.
• As a record of where you took this photo. If you ever return and that could be a few days or years later, you know where you’ve been and whether it’s worth going back to the same spot.

2. Making sure you are secure.

Depending on where you are in the world, security is something to pay attention to.

There will always be someone who is keen to steal from you as a tourist.

There are countless stories of tourists having their bags, cameras and other items ripped from them.

However, whilst there’s never a guarantee that you won’t find yourself in that situation, you can definitely minimise the chances.

• If you want to have your camera ready to go, make sure you have it around or across your neck.
• Carry your bag across your body or if it’s a backpack carry it as a back pack.
• Keep all your bag pockets and openings firmly closed.
• And speaking of bags, it’s best to have a non-descript bag that doesn’t shout to the world “CAMERA”!
• There will be times when you need to put your bag on the ground. A foot through one of the straps is always a good idea.
• Beware of what and who is around you. If you see anyone suspicious move away.
• Keep away from the kerb if you are in an area that’s known for motorbike thieves.

3. Subjects

Whilst strictly not part of any travel photography workflow, I’ve included it here. Without thinking about subject matter then you’re not going to create great images.

As you roam the streets of your destination, always look for something interesting and unique.

That can be anything from the usual famous Icons to much smaller obscure subjects like rubbish on a street, or street art, even a close up of the bark on a tree.
The list is endless.

Whatever subject you choose to take, play around with different settings, angles and positions.

The goal is not to copy what everyone else is doing but to be individual.

That’s not to say that you shouldn’t ever take a straight forward image of an icon.
After all, you may be able to bring a different style to a subject even if from the same position as everyone else.

Often you will think that these different experimental images didn’t work. 
Because of that you will be tempted to delete it after looking at it through the camera viewfinder.

Don’t do it.

In fact, don’t look at what you have taken at all until you have moved away and are resting somewhere away from the subject.

4. Reviewing through the viewfinder

There are few times when you should review what you have taken.

The most important being if you want to make sure you captured something that you may never see again.

Even then it’s only worth looking if you have the opportunity to retake it, otherwise what’s the point.

If you missed that multi coloured Aston Martin with a James Bond look alike standing up through the sun roof, then that’s too bad.

The thing is that looking through the viewfinder at what you have taken, can rob you of any other photo taking opportunities. 

Things can move quickly, light changes, people and vehicles move, and the weather can change in a instant.

The time to review, as I said is away from the action. You are only doing it for some immediate gratification and to show others anyway.

Of course, in the present-day social media share society, you may want to share some images that you have just taken immediately.

That’s all down to personal choice.
Personally, I don’t share anything publicly until I know the image is at it’s best.

5. Back up

The best time to review the day’s images is when you get back to your accommodation.

Before you do anything, you need to back everything up.

If the only copy of your image is on the memory card, then you are playing with fire.

As a rule of thumb, it’s best to have a least 2 other copies in different locations.
If you’ve copied all your images to both a hard drive and your laptop then store the hard drive in a different bag to your laptop.

For more on backing up your images go to how to back up you travel photos.

6. Reviewing correctly

How much you can review is dependent on what other equipment you have with you.

If you have a laptop with processing software, then you can start by picking your keepers or at least allocating stars.

You can even begin post processing if that’s what you want to do.

But there’s no point in starting to post process if your laptop screen is small and/or hasn’t been calibrated

Any adjustments you make are likely to be inaccurate.

You can of course still review and maybe go through and rate them or select the keepers.

I’ll cover that process in another post.

7. Deleting

So, let’s say you have backed up the days’ shooting and have gone through them and rated them.

What do you do with the ones that are no good?

In general – nothing!

Unless you have images that are totally out of focus or you’ve had a few accidental hip shots then don’t delete.

I’ve actually had a couple of good shots that have been accidentally taken from the hip.

My final note on this travel photography workflow is that it’s a personal choice on how much time you spend on your images when you are back at your digs.

But I would again recommend that if you are not travelling alone then do the minimum or be prepared to suffer the consequences of being anti-social.

Travel Photographers Workflow on the road – Summary

The wonders of having dates and even Geo Tags on each file are great. But it’s still essential to keep a written, whether electronically or by hand, record on each image or batch of images.

It’s essential to keep a low profile if you have an expensive (even if it’s not) looking camera.

Pay attention to who and what is around you.

Don’t rely on others but don’t obsess either. You are there to enjoy yourself.

Look for individual shots that speak to the viewer and give you a sense of satisfaction.

Only review through the view finder when you believe you really need to.

The world keeps spinning while you are looking at the viewfinder.

Once you are back at your accommodation back up first, then review and finally start rating.

But make sure you have a big enough screen to give you plenty of detail.

Don’t delete anything unless it’s obvious that you will never see the image again.

Finally remember you can review, rate, delete and post process when you get home.

Nothing like relaxing with a beer at the end of the day at a place you like or have never been before with friends and/or family.

What’s your workflow?

I’ve come clean and told you what I do. What about you? Do you have a travel photography workflow that’s totally different from what I’ve mentioned in this article?
Leave your comments below

And while you’re at it why don’t you pop your email in the box below. Not only will you get content that’s not always posted on this site, but you will get my free e-book “9 ways to improve your Travel Photography”.

Any questions then please contact me here and/or please say hello at these places:

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Feel free to share this to your social media of choice

In the days of film, the only form of back up was to guard your film and slides as if you’re life depended on it. Nowadays with digital imaging there are many ways of backing up your photos. I touched on this in Planning and Preparation for Travel Photos.

So, follow me along as I give you some ideas on how to back up your travel photos.

History of Back up

The term back up only really became used when computers began to take over the world.

With paper you could make copies and file them off-site.

As we all switched from paper to digital, Business’s started to have tape, then floppy disks followed by CD’s for backups of the day’s work.

Now you have back up servers some of which are in the cloud.

Photography back up

Before digital, you were able to have extra copies made of photographic prints and file them somewhere else.

Not so with negatives and slides. Well that’s not strictly true, you could get copies, but it was expensive. It was not until digital came along that we began to realise that we had the option to back up all our precious photos.
We could even do it retrospectively, if we had plenty of time or money, by scanning film and slides.

In those early days the floppy disk and then later the CD or DVD were the main back up mediums.
But as with film and slides we all ended up with boxes of DVD’s. Whilst smaller than boxes of Slides and Negatives they still took up some room.

Let’s take a look at what options we have now.

Direct backup to a Laptop or Computer

The simplest and most convenient way is to connect directly to a Laptop or computer. This is done via the OEM cable that each camera manufacturer supplies to a laptop or computer. Once you have it on the computer you are free to copy it anywhere else.
All camera manufacturers give you that option. The main disadvantage is that the cable supplied is not usually off the shelf if you lose it. Additionally, the camera port tends to be non-standard or at best not common.

Memory Cards

When you take an image with a digital camera it sits on the memory card that you have in the camera.
With a smartphone that image will generally sit on the phone’s internal drive. However, you can change it to sit on a microSD, if that’s available.

Memory cards can also be used to back up your photos either via a computer or in some camera models.

How does that work?

Well you remove the memory card from the camera and insert into either a computer memory card port or a card reader that plugs into the computer.
Likewise, the same applies with a blank memory card. Once both cards are loaded you copy from one to the other.

Backing up in camera is usually confined to some of the more high-end cameras. These now come with two memory card slots that you can use to either extend the memory or use the second slot as back up. When the latter is set, each time you take an image, it not only sits on the first memory card but also on the second.

Another option is to transfer it in camera periodically but that can be dangerous if you forget to do it.

The system of using memory cards as a backup medium is not used that often unless you are looking to immediately back up and that’s your only option.

One recommendation I would make is to use something similar with a smartphone.

Smartphone backup

With a smartphone, the potential to lose it or drop it is much higher than a camera. I would suggest a microSD if that’s easily removable (otherwise you will lose it with the Smartphone!)

Another option is a small flash drive that can be attached, usually through the charging port.
Why would we need to do that when we all rely on the cloud to backup our photos on a smartphone?
Services like Google Photos, or iCloud work well when you have connectivity. But what about when you don’t have connectivity?

Last year I stayed a few days in a remote resort called Berkley River Lodge in the Kimberley region of Western Australia.

There was no phone signal at all and WIFI was limited to 50m from the reception hut. We were on a helicopter trip heading back to the resort. One of the other guests was taking pictures of the sunset with an iPhone when he lost it out of the window. I might add that the phone wasn’t his, it was his partners!
We had also all been warned not to take your phone too close to the window during the flight as, you’ve guessed it, it could get sucked out.
Anyway, apart from looking like a Kangaroo in headlights, he lost the phone.
All the photos that they had taken in the last few days were only on that phone.
And as they had no way of backing them up other than using iCloud they were lost with the phone.

Lesson from that is not to rely on the cloud as back up for smartphones or indeed anything else.

If you have another device like a tablet, then you can set up a hotspot that will enable you to transfer or copy your files to the Tablet.
But if you are likely to be without the tablet and have no connectivity, then a Mobile flash drive is a no brainer.

WIFI SD cards

An option to standard Memory Cards are WIFI cards. Even if your camera has Wi-Fi capability this still allows you to back up your images to another device.

If you have a fairly new camera, then chances are it will have WIFI capability anyway, so you can backup via WIFI without a special WIFI Memory Card.

However, in both these instances the issue is space.
Most Smartphones or tablets are around 64GB and if you are shooting RAW over a 2-3-week period it doesn’t take long to max out. For example, last year at a African Game Park I shot around 64GB of RAW and JPEG images.

Physical back up devices

There are a lot of devices out there that you can use to back up your photos. Most of them are portable hard drives

There is the basic hard drive that you plug into a laptop or some tablets. You then copy the files to the hard drive via the Laptop or Tablet

Some hard drives have a SD Slot for your memory card. You insert the card and it automatically copies to the drive.
So, in theory you don’t need another device. Yet, unless you plug into another device you are not going to know whether it has backed up all your photos correctly.

Another option is the wireless Hard Drive. This is like a hybrid. They have SD slots as well as having the option to wirelessly copy images via the hotspot I mentioned before.
This has the same disadvantage of not being able to see what images have been copied across. Although some do allow you to view the contents of the drive from a smartphone or tablet as well as a computer.

Then there are hard drives that have a screen that lets you view the images even if they are RAW.

Hard drive types

Lately hard drives come in two types, HDD mechanical Hard Disk Drives or SSD Solid State Drives.
The differences are basically that SSD’s are faster but more expensive.
In a computer or laptop then I would go to an SSD every time. With portable hard drives, where there is only data being stored, then it’s really a personal preference.

For more on the difference read this article on PCMag.

Cloud Backup

How many cloud services are there now? There’s Apple’s iCloud, Microsoft OneDrive, Dropbox, Box, Google Drive, Crashplan, Backblaze, Carbonite and there are the Photo Sharing Sites (more on that below).

Of course, all cloud backup services depend on the internet. So if you are travelling, you are relying upon there being an internet connection. That is often beyond your control.

There is much better connectivity than there was 5 years ago and I’m sure that there it will improve even more.
But as I mentioned earlier there is always somewhere that the internet is not connected.

Even with an internet connection, the bandwidth or speed can be poor. Meaning that the time taken to upload your photos can be long and arduous, not to mention frustrating.

Using the cloud

Whether you use the cloud or not is dependent on a couple of things:

One is the Camera equipment.
For instance, a Smartphone has inbuilt cloud capability and relies heavily on there being an internet connection. That is either by the phone signal e.g. 4G or a wireless connection.
On the other hand, unless you have a 1-2-year-old camera, then there is every chance that the camera you have will not have Wi-Fi capability. Even a lot of the new ones only allow you to upload to a phone or tablet from which you then have upload to the cloud.

The other reason is the interface and ease of use. I haven’t tried all these services, but of the ones I’ve used, iCloud and Dropbox seem to me to have the best interface and ease of use.

Cloud cost and security

There is one further reason and that is price. Prices vary so much with specials and add-ons that comparing them is likely to be totally inaccurate by the time you might read this.

The other thing to consider is security. I hesitate to say it but using the likes of the big guns like Microsoft, Apple or Google does give a sense of security, compared with the smaller players.
That may well be false.
But it’s worth asking a few questions. I.E. where are their servers? What happens to the data if a server goes down or heaven forbid the company disappears?

What do I use? OneDrive. Why because Microsoft gives me 5TB with my Office 365 subscription.

Photo Sharing Sites

The other cloud-based storage systems are Photo Sharing sites. These are likes of Flickr, Smugmug, Google Photos, Pixbuf (a new one), Photobucket, 500PX, My Portfolio, Amazon Prime Photos plus a few others.
These add a bit more to the concept of back up.
Usually it’s a subscription service that allows you to view and share all your photos. Some even have their own social media interface meaning you can browse other user’s photos and comment or share.

Flickr was the first of these and now has been gobbled up by the expanding Smugmug.
As a user of both I have yet to establish what that will mean.

Take a look at my site on Smugmug to get an understanding.

Unlike the straight cloud backup services, some of these sites don’t support all file types.
So, if you are looking for a complete solution to house and view your RAW files for example, do your due diligence.

How to back up your travel photos – at home

We’ve covered a broad summary of what there is out there to back up your travel photos whilst you are on the move.

What about when you get home?
All of the above apply to your home base as well.

But you can also add in Desktop Drives

Desktop Hard drives

Desktop Drives used to be fixed to one certain location. But with the growth in portable hard drive storage, the fixed and portable are overlapping.

Most of us these days have Laptops instead of desktop computers which gives us freedom to work pretty much anywhere.
So, plugging in a portable hard drive as not only an expansion to the laptop storage, but also as a backup is easy.

For the fixed you have three main types.

Standard hard drives that connect via USB or Apple’s Lightning and have their own power supply.

Cloud based drives that connect into a network also called NAS (Network Attached Storage)
This is different to the cloud services mentioned earlier. These are hard drives that are physically in your space but can be accessed remotely via an internet connection.
They also come with a power plug for an independent power supply

The last type is called a RAID system (redundant array of inexpensive disks) that also have their own cloud. This is a trickier system to manage and install.
Basically, it is several hard drives usually in multiples of 2 that back each other up. Where it can be confusing is the many different set up combinations available.
It’s a way of ensuring that should one back up drive fail then there is always another one that has identical data, so that you can sleep easy.

What I use

Now I think it’s time for me to give you my system.

On the road

Depending on the duration and the reason for the trip, I will carry either one or two Wireless Hard Drives, my surface pro or iPad Pro. I also now carry, since seeing the guy at Berkeley River lose an iPhone, a portable flash drive that fits my Samsung S8.

How do I use them?

I am fortunate that my Olympus OMD1 MKII has dual memory card slots, so I use one of these memory cards as back up. Additionally, every evening or at least every couple of evenings, I back up one of the memory cards to both wireless hard drives. If I have been diligent enough to clear the hard drive on my surface before travelling, I back up to my surface as well.

I back up my Samsung S8 to my surface if I am confident that I have good internet for the cloud back up to my OneDrive service. If I ‘m unsure of the connectivity, then I will back that up to my portable flash drive and later the surface.

I have used the iPad Pro as back up in the past. But due to the number of apps it has, it only has a small amount of spare storage compared to the surface.

How to back up your travel photos – Summary

Back up is a relatively new concept in the photographic world. It has only been around since the advent of Digital photography

There are many forms of back up for the travel photographer

Memory cards can be used for short term back up

Smartphone Cameras rely on cloud services, which can be unreliable when travelling.

A flash drive or microSD is a more reliable medium

New cameras can upload photos via different WI-FI systems to the cloud but only via another device

There are many different hard drives that can be used as back up devices.

They can be like small computers with their own screens and flexible connectivity.

Speaking of Cloud back up, the number of services available is huge. So, you need to select carefully before using one of these to ensure it meets your needs and security

Photo sharing sites like Flickr and Smugmug can also provide a level of back up for your photos

Then we get into the heavy duty physical hard drives. These use sophisticated software and multiple drives that you can create your own cloud with.

What do you use?

I’ve come clean and told you what I use. What about you? Do you use something or have a system that’s totally different from what I’ve mentioned in this article? Give me your take on how to back up your travel photos
Leave your comments below

And while you’re at it why don’t you pop your email in the box below. Not only will you get content that’s not always posted on this site, but you will get my free e-book “9 ways to improve your Travel Photography”.

Any questions then please contact me here and/or please say hello at these places:

Facebook: Twitter: Instagram: LinkedIn:

Feel free to share this to your social media of choice